1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to power electronic devices and more particularly to an efficient configuration of stacked power electronic device modules.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various assemblies of power electronic devices to form medium voltage switches and the like are known. For example, the following publications depict commercial arrangements: ABB brochure 34-300 (Sep. 1996), and PQA'97 North America (Mar. 3-6, 1997) paper entitled "Switching Megawatts in Microseconds". The power electronic devices require compression clamping for suitable operations and heat dissipation. This can be accomplished either by clamping the overall assembly or individual clamping of subassemblies. Heat sinks are required to maintain the power electronic devices at suitable operating temperatures over the desired operating range. To this end, heat sinks are clamped about the power electronic devices.
While the enclosures of the prior art arrangements may be useful to provide certain useful operational features, the prior arrangements are large in size and are relatively difficult to assemble and disassemble.